FLY OF THE MONTH – AUGUST 2024
THE YELLOW DADDY
HOOK: Size 10 short shank.
THREAD: Brown 8/0.
DETACHED BODY: Yellow foam cylinder or fine dubbing and latex constructed on a needle in an electric drill.
If you tie your own flies, have a look at this short video on how to construct these very lifelike detached bodies:
LEGS: Knotted pheasant tail, two knots each, three on each side. HACKLES: Grizzle cock and red game cock wound together.
When I am tying daddy long legs I don’t usually bother adding hackle point wings. These are usually present on commercially tied flies but I find they tend to make the fly spin when casting and this can kink up the leader. The fish don’t seem to notice the lack of them anyway! Natural crane flies with yellow bodies are more common on the large midlands reservoirs such as Rutland, Graham, Draycote etc. but they are occasionally found in the north-east. A yellow imitation is always worth a cast as a change from the normal tan coloured variety. Better still, fish the two colours of fly on the same leader and see which is the most effective. Another body colour choice would be orange. This colour seems to be very attractive to trout in the summer although I have to say that I’ve never seem a daddy with an orange body. Sometimes though, a change of colour can make all the difference.
Below: Orange Foam-Bodied Daddy
At this time of the year there can be a huge variety of flies and beetles on the surface of the two lakes at Hallington, and the angler is usually spoilt for choice. Watch out falls of flying ants, especially in hot calm weather, as these will provoke a good rise of fish. For the black variety, a dry hawthorn or black gnat is as good as anything. For the red variety try a small fiery brown hopper or similar. There can also be large falls of black gnats in August and September so a size 16 black gnat should always be in your fly box.
For evening fishing at this time of year, I would choose to have a couple of dry sedge patterns on my leader, because I find fishing surface flies to be the most productive fishing method at Hallington during the summer months. Obviously this depends a lot on the weather and if there are fish rising, but generally speaking if you pick your fishing days carefully, dry flies are often the best bet.
Phil Bilbrough